Another thing I forgot to mention in my last post regarding my goals for 2012 is to make more money at online poker. Of course this sounds trivial as most players want to do that as well, but there is always a difference in life between those who want and those who do. Of course you need first to want, but then do not forget to do it. So the point here is it is always possible to get better at something, but you have to work on it and this is what I intend to do this year.

To get better at online poker, or simply to make more money at it, you need to sit down and decide how you are going to do it. There are different possibilities, such as (1) finding your optimal stake level (given your current game), (2) finding your optimal online poker site (as not all sites are equal) or finding your optimal poker variation, to name a few.

For example number two, you need to survey poker sites and find one that best fits your style and skill. There are the easiest poker sites, and there are hardest poker sites. A site such as Pokerstars could be considered like one of the hardest as it attracts the best players given its traffic and the possibility to make a lot of money with the Supernova Elite VIP level. A site like Party Poker has a reputation to be easier, but it is certainly not one of the easiest online poker sites, because its large traffic also entices strong players to join. This points us to the evidence that easier sites must have less traffic. This way you see less shark-type regular players and more fish who got lost there and do not know what there are doing.

One of my poker buddy mentioned a poker room named PokerView. I did not know that one, do not blame me there are hundreds of poker sites and I do not know them all. So this site belongs to the Everleaf Gaming Network, which is one of the smaller networks. Small does not mean easier, but there is a good chance it is easier to make money there than at a bigger room. The only way to find out is to try so I went to the pokerview download page and installed the program on my computer. So I will report later how it goes.

The other points I mentioned are stake level and game variant. These are so-called low hanging fruits. You must test at what stake you make the most money, including how many tables you can handle. Leave your pride at the locker room, if you make more at NL50 than NL100, then stay at the lower stake until you get stronger and give another shot to NL100. Regarding poker variants as I said I am trying Omaha 8. Clearly in games other than Texas Holdem, the skill level is lower, so this is something to try. At the big sites you can play many other variants, and this will increase your overall skill level anyway.

Dialing it in… I’m starting to get Omaha8 dialed in. I’m enjoying the challenge of learning the game, although I admit it’s been a bit of a struggle at times (I expected it to be easier than it’s actually turned out to be).

One of the biggest problem areas for me has been finding the right balance for post-flop aggression. When I first started playing I was way too passive (due in no small part to the fact I really wasn’t sure what I was doing yet)…as I became more comfortable with O8 I began to become more and more aggressive and quickly crossed over into chip spewing land. I was still playing hold’em, trying to bully my opponents out of the pot which just doesn’t work in low limit O8.

I’m now in the process of reigning in my overall aggression and instead of firing chips wildly into the pot, I am looking for more tactical spots to apply some focused aggression (ex: finding good spots for promo raises, etc). I am starting to think and play like an O8 player (rather than a hold’em player) and my results have begun to show some promise (which is a nice change of pace). I have still got a lot to learn though, lol.

I am writing my goals for 2012, with the New Year weekend upon us I thought I would mention a few goals…

1. Become a better O8 player, this is kind of obvious. I’d like to be playing at the 10/20 & 15/30 level by mid yer or the end of summer.

2. Eat healthy and exercise more (lose at least 25 pounds). This one is obvious too, well needed and better late than never. I need to reduce my gravitational field, small objects have begun to orbit around me which is annoying as hell. A bigger mass has more gravitational power I guess.

3. Blog more. If for no other reason than to entertain myself, and hopefully my readers too. If you like online poker, then you might find something interesting to read as this is the topic of this blog.